Agence Française de Développement (AFD) recently executed a grant agreement with the NGO PlanèteEnfants et Développement (PE&D) to finance the establishment of health and early childhood services for textile workers in Cambodia for the amount of €330,000.

Philippe Steinmetz, country director of AFD for Cambodia, and Nathalie Dupont, president of the PE&D, signed this agreement under the aegis of Eva Nguyen Bin, French Ambassador to Cambodia, and in the presence of representatives of Cambodian institutions and NGOs.

The pilot project will be implemented in 12 factories in Phnom Penh and Kampong Speu province by PE&D and its historical partner, KrousarYoeung. It will directly concern 140 children 3 years old and younger, and 1,200 textile workers. Around 50 people will be trained in maternal health and daycare services inside the pilot factories. The project’s objectives are: 1) setting up reproductive and maternal health services (infirmaries) and daycare for young children inside factories; 2) assess the different types of current services and advocate their formalisation and dissemination at a national level to the government, civil society and the private sector. Health and daycare services for factories of more than 50 employees (for infirmaries) or 100 employees (for daycare) are normally required by the law but remain limited in practice. Photos supplied